chapter 5
1233 Words
✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ CHAPTER 5 ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
ELSA MCKINLEY
Marked!
Gym class was already bad enough when you were the town’s favorite heartbreak headline. Even worse when you were being stared at like a cursed relic every time you bent to tie your shoes.
And right now, I was doing exactly that … kneeling on the track field, breath catching from the mile run, hair stuck to my neck, silently praying Coach wouldn't yell my name again.
“McKinley, move your legs, not your lips!”
Prayers denied.
I stood, muttered something about hydration, and jogged back toward the bleachers. My skin felt hot. It wasn’t the sun… I’d run in hotter weather. This was something else… something strange…
A slow, weird burn… like fire licking under my skin.
Specifically, on my wrist.
I looked down.
My scar…
It was glowing.
I froze mid-step.
No, no, no. That couldn’t be right. Scars don’t glow… not unless someone laced me with radioactive glitter in my sleep.
I shook my hand. The glow faded slightly, then pulsed again. Just a faint shimmer, like silver ink under the skin.
“What the hell…” I whispered, pulling my sleeve over it quickly.
“Elsa.”
I turned.
Lucio stood behind me, silent but intense as always. He looked at me like he’d just watched me sprout wings.
“What?” I asked, backing up a little.
His eyes dropped to my sleeve. “Your wrist.”
“I… what about it?”
He didn’t answer. He stepped forward, reached out, and before I could stop him, he grabbed my arm.
Gently… firmly.
And then his fingers slid over the fabric… right to the scar.
“You’re not just human, are you?”
My
“No. You’re mistaken.” I turned and walked off, fast.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling.
Or the fear.
Or the burn still crawling beneath my skin.
After class, Luca caught up with me near the stairwell.
“Hey,” he said, panting slightly. “Can we talk?”
I didn’t stop walking. “If it’s about Lucio grabbing my wrist…”
“It’s not,” he cut in. “Okay, maybe it is. But not in a bad way. He’s just concerned.”
“About what? That my scar decided to throw a disco party in the middle of gym class?”
He blinked. “It glowed?”
I stopped walking.
He read my face. “Okay. Definitely glowed.”
I crossed my arms. “What’s happening to me?”
Luca glanced around and stepped closer. “I can’t explain everything right now, but… your energy, it’s different.”
“Different how?”
“Like… I don’t know. Wolf-touched.”
“Wolf-touched?” I echoed. “That’s not a real thing.”
“It is in our world.”
“Your world?”
He hesitated. “Just… talk to your mom. Please.”
I stared at him. “Why would my mom know anything about glowing scars and wolf-touch voodoo?”
But he was already backing away.
“Ask her,” he said again. “Tonight.”
I did.
I wish I could say she gave me answers.
But no.
After dinner, I followed her into the kitchen and stood awkwardly while she packed leftover spaghetti into plastic containers.
“Mom?”
“Hmm?”
“When I was younger… did I ever get bitten by a dog?”
She laughed. “What?”
“I’m serious. Or scratched. Something that left a scar?”
She paused, one hand on the fridge door. “Why are you asking that?”
I swallowed. “Because my scar… it did something today. It lit up.”
There was silence.
Then, carefully: “Lit up?”
“Yes, like it was glowing. And I’ve been having these weird dreams. Wolves. Forests. And someone said I’m not just human.”
Her jaw tensed. “Who said that?”
“Mom, what is this? Why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?”
She turned, her smile brittle. “Honey, you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. With Ethan and school.”
“No. Don’t do that. Don’t gaslight me into thinking I imagined this.”
“I’m not,” she said sharply. “But you’re scaring yourself. Maybe it’s time to step back from those people. From that boy.”
I stared at her. “You know something, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “Get some sleep, Elsa. Please.”
And that was it.
Another brick wall.
I didn’t sleep.
Instead, I stared at the scar on my wrist for hours, watching the faint silver hum beneath my skin. It faded and returned, like it was breathing… like it was alive.
At some point, I must have dozed off. Just for a second.
Because when I opened my eyes, Lucio was standing by my window.
My heart launched into my throat. “Jesus—!”
He raised his hand. “Don’t scream.”
“How did you even—”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Breaking into my room isn’t the best way to do that!”
He didn’t answer. Just looked at my wrist.
I didn’t bother hiding it this time.
He exhaled. “Then it’s true.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What is?”
“There are things you need to know. Come with me.”
He took me to their place. The Nightbane Estate.
It wasn’t a house… it was a freaking haunted castle. Iron gates. Tall towers. Windows like watchful eyes. The air smelled of moss and something older. Older than anything.
Luca met us at the door, clearly already briefed.
“I knew it,” he whispered when he saw my wrist.
Lucio led us to a long, dim room lined with books and velvet chairs. He paced once, then looked at me.
“This will sound insane.”
I laughed dryly. “You think this is the part that’s insane?”
He nodded toward the fireplace. “Sit. Listen.”
And I did…
Because something deep inside me already knew.
“Our family,” Lucio began, “comes from a long line of werewolves. Not just any wolves. Royal blood. The Nightbane name used to mean something.”
“Used to?” I asked.
He nodded. “Until the Silvershadow Pack betrayed us.”
“Ethan’s pack?”
“His father was the one who started it. Politics. Power. Bloodlines. My family was hunted. Killed. Only a few of us survived.”
Luca continued softly, “There’s a prophecy, an old one. It's about a girl born human but marked by betrayal.”
“Marked…” I looked at my wrist.
Lucio nodded. “It’s the symbol of the Moonborn.”
“Moonborn?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” he said slowly, “you’re not just human. You might be one of the few who can command a wolf. Not by force. By voice. By soul.”
I stared at them.
“You think I’m some kind of chosen one?”
Lucio didn’t flinch. “We think you’re more than what they told you you were.”
I laughed. “You’re insane.”
“Then why did your scar glow?”
- Writer
